Pod taxis: Centre to call for fresh Eois this month
Project has cleared all major hurdles, says transport minister
NEW DELHI: The government will seek fresh expressions of interest (Eois) in December for launching India’s first driverless pod taxi system on a 70km stretch connecting Dhaula Kuan in New Delhi to Manesar in Haryana.
The personal rapid transit (PRT) project has cleared all major hurdles, and safety standards will be put in place to ensure its implementation in 2018, minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari said in an interview. “I am determined to showcase the new technology to the people,” he said.
The futuristic transit system is expected to provide a fast and convenient mode of transport from New Delhi to Manesar, an industrial town in Gurugram district that is home to Maruti Suzuki India Ltd’s car plant.
It is also likely to help decongest the roads in Gurugram, where crippling gridlocks are a regular feature.
The Eois called for in 2016 will now be scrapped because standards and procedures for the implementation of the project were not laid down at that time, Gadkari said, adding that a committee formed to address concerns related to the new technology submitted its report last week.
The panel has recommended that the technical standards to be followed by autonomous pod taxi systems in India should be along the lines of the Automated People Mover Standards of the US.
For the legal framework of PRT systems, the Punjab PRT Act should be amended suitably and adopted as the model act for the implementation of the project, according to the committee’s report, which has been reviewed by Mint.
The committee has also recommended creation of the post of a PRT commissioner, empowered to certify the safety of the transit systems, in India’s PRT Act.
The PRT system is a driverless vehicle in the shape of pods, which can accommodate two to six people, and run along a predetermined course. The pods can move at 80-130km an hour.
“The NITI Aayog’s proposal to ask the PRT companies to build a 1km stretch to showcase their technology would be incorporated in the new EOI,” a senior government official said on condition of anonymity. “The fresh EOI will also help to provide a level-playing field.”
For its 2016 request for Eois, the government had received responses from four companies out of which three—ultra Global PRT, skytran and Metrino Personal Rapid Transit—received approvals.
However, Metrino withdrew from the project in May.